2017 What Car? Reliability Survey

In our 2017 Reliability Survey, we asked more than 14,200 people to tell us about any faults their cars have suffered during the past year. These are the results for city cars aged 0-3yrs...

2017 What Car? Reliability Survey

City cars

It's full marks for Toyota’s Aygo, with owners reporting no faults with their cars. More than 13% cited reliability as what they liked most about their car, emphasising just how dependable it is.

Only 14% of Kia Picanto owners reported an issue; 10% related to bodywork and 5% were for non-engine electrics. Reassuringly, all were fixed under warranty in less than a week.

Skoda’s Citigo isn’t far behind the Picanto. Again, 14% of cars suffered a problem, but this model lags slightly behind for reliability because the faults related to more serious areas, such as brakes, engine electrics and steering. On top of this, some cars were rendered not driveable and not all the faults were fixed for free under the warranty; a small percentage of owners paid up to £300.

At the other end of the chart, nearly 29% of Volkswagen Ups had problems. The most common were with the clutch/gearbox and non-engine electrics; two-thirds of electrical faults related to the car’s digital radio. Around a fifth ofcars took more than a week to repair and not all were fixed under warranty; a small percentage cost up to £1000.

Only 20% of Fiat Panda owners told us about problems, but they spanned some important areas, including engine, engine electrics and suspension. All faults were fixed in less than a week, though, and most were carried out under warranty.

Even fewer Fiat 500 owners (15% ) reported faults, but those faults were serious and took more than a day to fix. More than 7% had steering issues and 4% had engine problems.

Reliability for city cars aged 0-3yrs

| Rank | Make and model | Score |
|---------------|--------------------|---------------------------|| 1 | Toyota Aygo (2014-present) | 100.0% || 2 | Kia Picanto (2011-2017) | 89.6% || 3 | Skoda Citigo (2012-present) | 88.5% || 4 | Hyundai I10 Hatchback (2014-present) | 88.1% || 5 | Fiat 500 (2008-present) | 85.2% || 6 | Fiat Panda (2012-present) | 75.5% || 7 | Volkswagen Up (2012-present) | 74.8% |